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Strict Standards: Only variables should be assigned by reference in /home/content/17/7261617/html/plugins/content/facebooklikeandshare/facebooklikeandshare.php on line 362Your Guide to Malta and Gozo - Couvre Porte

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Enter Birgu in style through Couvre Port. This is a sequence of three gates, all believed to have been designed by the prolific Charles Françoise de Mondion.

The first gate in the series is the Gate of Aragon, also known as the Advanced Gate. The date of its construction is displayed in Roman numerals – MDCCII - sculpted above the archway within which is a bronze bust of Sir Paul Boffa, Prime Misister of Malta from 1947 until 1950. Its intricate decorative sculptures were largely defaced by the French during their two year stint in Malta.

The second gate is Couvre Port proper, a short passageway constructed in 1723. The bronze bust of Nestu Laviera – a politician from Birgu prominent within the Malta Labour Party was inaugurated here by Nationalist Prime Minister Dr. Lawrence Gonzi and Dr. Joseph Muscat, leader of the Labour opposition on 11th January, 2009. Mr. Laviera was Speaker in the House of Representatives from 1955 to 1958, and from 1976 to 1978. The bust was created by Clive Busuttil.

The final gate in the sequence is the Gate of Provance, also known as the Main gate. It is the least elaborate of the three. An extract in Latin from Psalm 139 (140):7 is engraved into the marble plaque above the archway: “Obumbrasti super caput meum in die belli”, translated as: You have placed a shade over my head in times of war. Another marble plaque on the inner side of the archway recalls 1727, the date of completion of this third gate.

A flight of steps in the square between the second and third gate leads to the Post de France which is an excellent vantage point onto the Three Cities.